NICK KENNEDY starred with the bat as Radcliffe won a low scoring game against Walsden on the tight Todmorden Road pitch.

Kennedy hit a fine 43 after coming in at number three. Later in the Radcliffe innings John Macauley posted 37 as the visitors chased Walsden's meagre total of 97.

The home side were restricted with the bat due to some fine bowling from Radcliffe pair Steve Dearden and Sardar Shah, who took four for 32 and four for 35 respectively.

It all helped Radcliffe to take all five points after a fine three wicket win.

Sunday was a bit of a washout -- and there were some shedding more tears than others about it.

Norden professional Mujtaba must ahve been gutted after putting in plenty of effort bowling 22 overs and getting a great return of eight for 29 for his efforts. Bruce Cruse was the only Radcliffe batsman who set about the Norden bowling as he amassed 57, backed up by Graham Simpson's useful knock that brought him 25 runs.

It helped Radcliffe set a modest total of 134 -- but it didn't really matter in the end as the inclement weather meant that Norden didn't even get to the crease to start their reply and the game was abandoned.

STAND clocked up a morale-boosting victory over Ashton at home on Saturday.

They passed the visitors total of 111 with just one wicket in hand, mainly due to a super unbeaten knock of 57 from Dave Wright and a magnificent performance with the ball from Dave Airey, who finished with figures of four for just 15.

Stand professional Brad Flegg hit a cracking 131 at Oldham as Stand ran up a total of 182 on Sunday.

It wasn't enough though as the home side passed their target with seven wickets in hand after openers Nash and Inkden hit 60 and 40 respectively to set Oldham up for the win.

UNSWORTH suffered a bout of Bank Holiday blues after suffering two defeats in two days at the weekend.

Their first disappointment came as they struggled to cope on a fast track at Middleton and fell to a nine-wicket defeat.

After going in to bat first, only three players broke into double figures as Middleton's bowling attack forced them on to the back foot. Wanasinghe managed to rattle up 41 runs, but took 90 minutes to squeeze them out, while Steve Barlow was top scorer for the visitors with a 55 that included 10 fours.

Gary Jones hit a bright 23 in 30 minutes, smacking two sixes and two fours along the way, but with Saeed, Warren, Mizra and Joynson all walking for ducks, 151 all out was never going to be enough.

Middleton's batsmen toyed with the Unsworth bowling and racked up 65 runs in just 10 overs to set the tone for the innings.

Gardner did get carried away and was caught by Mizra off a Warren delivery, which was mis-hit into the air, but they soon polished off the remaining runs to register a comfortable win.

A change in conditions the following day saw Unsworth lose their race against time in a rain-affected match at Crompton.

A steady bowling performance restricted the home side to 134 runs, with only Kilburn, 36, breaking out of the teens.

Wanasinghe led the attack with six wickets for 41 runs, while Ahmed was again on form, taking four well-deserved wickets.

Crucially, the last-wicket partnership added 15 runs and lasted nine overs -- a stand that would prove crucial to the result.

Rain interruptions meant the 10 overs after 7.30pm rule had to be enforced, leaving Unsworth with a tough task to clinch the win.

Captain John Harrison gave them a great start by knocking a solid 34 partnership with Paul Manley, but the pair lost their wickets within two runs of each other and the bottom fell out of the Unsworth innings, leaving them 13 runs short of the target as the allotted overs ran out.